So, in an effort to get my students to write more, and to see that everyone can be a writer, I am going to start sharing my own writing on this blog. I'm going to copy and paste a short story that took me over a year to write on this post as a starting point. I really do want to be published again someday (I was published a couple of years ago), and I need to write more if that is what I want to do.
Here's the story I wrote about Lehi High School and the tunnels that run under the school. It is not perfect, but it's a start. Enjoy!
The Tunnels
I had always heard about the tunnels, but I had never gone down there. We had all heard about the tunnels. They ran all the way under the school, and the rumor was that the drama geeks all hung out down there, but the truth was that we were all too scared to find out.
We lived in a small town (small as in less than 10,000 in population). There were no traffic lights in town, the nearest movie theater was in the next town to the west, and the closest shopping mall was a twenty-minute drive on I-15. There weren’t a lot of things to do for fun, and most of the things we did do were school activities. The school plays were big events, homecoming week was looked forward to every year, and the end of the year graduation party even took place at the school. There just wasn’t any thing to do or any where else to hang out, unless you had a fake ID and went to Art’s Lounge, the local bar.
The high school itself was built in the late 1950s. Communism was the big scare then, and we all knew that bomb shelters were a must because of nuclear war threats, so when we talked about the tunnels, we assumed they had been built in case of a nuclear bomb. Of course, the adults (teachers and administrators at the school) tried to tell us that the tunnels were home to the heating and air conditioning system, but we didn’t believe them because the school was always too hot or too cold and no one ever went into the tunnels to fix the ventilation. If we complained about being cold, they told us to put on a jacket, and if we complained about being hot, they told us to deal with it.
Another thing that didn’t help the rumors about the tunnels was the weird noises we could hear coming from them. It didn’t matter what bathroom you went into, there were always noises coming from below them. Sometimes it sounded like banging on the pipes and other times it was the wind blowing through the tunnels. We never asked if there was a reason for the noises because we were afraid of what the answers might be.
It wasn’t until Natalie moved in that the truth was discovered. The year was 1993, and we liked to think that we were cool, but Natalie made sure all of us knew how uncool we really were. She came from New York City, was an only child, and knew all there was to know about everything. Her dad was in the military, and she had grown up in exotic places like Paris, Frankfurt, London, Miami, and of course, New York. The boys all loved her, and the girls pretended to like her because we didn’t want the boys to know how we really felt about her.
We took her into our group, and we put up with her comments about how lame life was in our small town. She soon became a leader of sorts because she was not afraid to try any thing new. Under her guidance and suggestion, we started to do things that we may not have done if she had not moved in. For example, she knew where to hang out to meet the college guys, and she would arrange dates for us with them. I never asked her where or how she met them; I was just excited to be going out with a group of older boys who had not grown up in a small town. She also knew where to find things to do that seemed exotic and new to us. She actually found a cave outside of town that none of us knew about, and she talked us into going there. Of course, we went along. We lied to our parents, took some flashlights and food, and went out on a late Friday night. The entrance to the cave was five feet down, and once you climbed in, you had to slide on your belly for another five feet before you could even sit up. The thought never occurred to us that this was dangerous, and we definitely did not have the right equipment; we just wanted to do something different. After exploring the cave for about thirty-minutes, we found a room large enough for all of us to sit in, and we spent the night talking and laughing as if this was something we did every day. Natalie was definitely the kind of girl we all wanted to be.
As the end of the year approached, talk about the all-night graduation party increased. The local PTA always hosted an all-night party for the graduating seniors, and of course, everyone went because there was nothing else to do. There would be movies, Sumo-wrestler suits, and other lame party games, but we all wanted to be there because it would be our last chance to be together. That is, we all wanted to be there until Natalie introduced her idea to us.
“Let’s spend the night camping,” she said to a group of us at lunch.
“Where are we going to camp in this hick town?” Sharie asked.
“I have a friend who has a huge backyard, and it is on the edge of town. Her parents will be out of town. We can hook up a generator, and we can watch movies, eat, and do whatever we want without any adult supervision,” Natalie explained.
The activities she suggested weren’t any different than what would be happening at the school, but the fact that we could party without the adults is what made us all decide to join in.
I approached my parents with the idea, and they were thrilled that I would be spending graduation night with the same group of friends I had gone through school with. Not only that, but my boyfriend, who was not in high school, would not be there, and my parents thought it would be a great idea. I mentioned that there would only be the group of students there, and my mom asked, “Where are you staying again?”
“We’re going to use the Nuttalls’ backyard. They have a generator we can use to plug a TV and VCR into so we can watch movies all night.”
“And, they will be there in case any thing goes wrong, right?” my dad asked.
“Of course, Dad. You don’t think they would let us use their yard without them being there, do you?”
“Okay, it seems all right. Just make sure you stay there and you don’t do anything stupid,” he replied.
I couldn’t believe that my parents were actually letting me go. The day of graduation arrived. We played our parts through the ceremony, received our diplomas, threw our caps, and went to dinner with our families. Then, I rushed home to get ready for the party.
At 5 PM, Melanie and Sharie came to pick me up. We arrived at the Nuttals’ backyard, and Natalie had everything set up. There were about twelve or thirteen of us there, and we looked forward to an evening of laughter and celebration. Around 10, the party got to be a little boring.
“Where’s Adam?” Sharie asked. Adam had been invited, but apparently, he and James had decided to not show until later.
“He decided to go to the school for a little while before he came here,” Natalie replied.
“Let’s go get him,” I suggested. “This party isn’t going to be any fun if we don’t have him and James here to do their Hans and Frans imitations for us.”
“OK,” Natalie agreed.
The three of us jumped into Sharie’s car, and we drove the fifteen minutes it took to get to the high school. We found Adam in the Little Theater watching Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall.
“Come to the party with us,” Sharie begged.
“I’ll come as soon as this is over,” Adam responded.
We left feeling a little euphoric because Adam was a lot of fun, and we knew that our party would be better than watching movies in the school. As we were headed out to the parking lot, Natalie paused next to the entrance to the auditorium.
“Hey, let’s see if the entrance to the tunnels is open,” she suggested.
Sharie and I both stopped and eyed one another. We didn’t want to go into the tunnels, but we didn’t want to make it seem like we were scared either.
“I really don’t think they would be stupid enough to have the tunnels open tonight,” I hesitatingly replied.
“Let’s just see. I have spent the last five months hearing about the tunnels, and wondering what the noises were from under the school. I want to see what all the hype is about. I can’t believe you two have grown up here, and you’ve never even tried to go down there.”
I knew a dare when I heard one, and I sure didn’t want to have Natalie think that I was a coward. After all, she had been all over the world, and surely the tunnels couldn’t be as bad as everyone said they were.
So, Sharie and I slowly followed Natalie around the corner to the back entrance of the auditorium. We tried the door to the costume closet, and it wouldn’t budge. At first I was relieved, but then Natalie gave one hard yank and the door burst open. Sharie and I stood in shock. “I knew that it would do that. It’s just like the doors between the gyms and the rest of the school. One good pull is all it takes,” Natalie grinned as she walked into the closet.
I had no idea what was in that room, but apparently Natalie had friends in drama who had told her where to go. There was a staircase to the left, and the room was black. Natalie flipped on her flashlight that she had brought with her, and she led the way down the stairs. Another door greeted us on our left. I was crossing my fingers that this door would stay closed and all the yanking in the world would not get it open. We could hear a moaning coming from behind it. Sharie pulled on my arm and said, “Come on. There’s nothing down here. It’s just the ventilation system like we knew.”
I heard the moaning again, and Natalie arched an eyebrow at us. “Ventilation? Really? You can’t believe those stories,” she told Sharie. “Come on! This will be fun. We will finally find out what is down here.”
I followed Natalie through the door, which had swung open with just one tug. Sharie followed us, but she didn’t come right on our heels. As we walked into the room, we could feel a breeze blowing and on our left was a large fan. Sharie said, “See, I told you it was just the heating and air system.”
Natalie shook her head and replied, “Look there is a turn down here. Let’s follow it and see where it goes.”
At this point, Sharie decided she had had enough. There was a loud moan that did not come from the fan, and Sharie bolted. We could hear her steps running up the stairs and the door to the closet slammed behind her when she left. “Well, at least you aren’t a small-town scaredy cat,” Natalie said, and she led the way around the corner.
By now, the moaning had increased, and it was getting louder. My heart was thumping so hard that I thought it may drown out the noise of the moans, but it didn’t. Natalie continued leading the way, and all I could see around us was empty space with cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. After we walked about 200 feet, we found a break in the path. Two corridors led away from the one we were in. “Which way should we go?” I whispered.
“Let’s flip a coin,” Natalie said. “Do you have one?”
“No, I don’t. We were supposed to be camping. I didn’t bring any cash with me,” I told her.
“Fine,” she huffed. “We’ll go left then,” and she led the way.
The moaning seemed to quiet down as we turned left, and I thought that this must be a good sign. But then, I could feel the breeze on my neck, and I saw a light in the distance ahead of us.
“Natalie, maybe we should go back,” I whispered. “There is obviously nothing here, and we are missing the party.”
“You go back if you want to, but I am going to see where that wind and the light is coming from,” she replied.
I didn’t want her to say that I can chickened out, so I followed along in her footsteps. The light kept getting brighter and the wind got a little bit colder. I kept telling myself that it must be some kind of main control room and that there was nothing to be afraid of, but I couldn’t help thinking about the rumors I had heard about kids who disappeared down here when we were growing up. I had three older siblings who had gone to the same school, and they had told me about the stories. My parents always hushed them up before they got too graphic, but the stories were usually the same thing. The popular girls would dare each other to go down into the tunnels, and inevitably, one of them never made it back out. Supposedly, they would get separated and never know what happened to each other until they came back out.
The latest “disappearance” had been years ago, so I kept telling myself that there was nothing to fear, and Natalie and I were perfectly safe. I was actually starting to believe myself until the corridor opened up into a brightly lit, well-furnished room. There was a bed in the corner, neatly made, a table and chairs, and a refrigerator. It was obvious that someone was living down here. I pulled Natalie’s arm and said, “Now can we get out of here?”
“Wow! Can you believe this?” she asked, without responding to my question. “There really is someone living down here. I never thought the stories were true.”
“What stories? Those are just rumors. This is probably just something that somebody has put down here as a joke to scare us and keep us out of here,” I replied, trying to keep my voice from shaking.
“You can go if you want to, but I am going to look around some more,” Natalie said. I hesitated, but I knew that I did not want to go back through the tunnels alone, so I stayed and watched as Natalie rummaged through the items that were in the room. There was really nothing there, so after ten minutes, she was satisfied, and the two of us returned to the halls above.
“I’m going back there later on,” she told me as we drove back to the party with our friends.
“Why would you want to do that? Clearly the person who lives there or whoever put the stuff there doesn’t want to be found. Besides, there was nothing there. It could have been just old props from a school play that have been long forgotten,” I tried to persuade her.
“You know and I know that those were not props. Someone is living there, and I am going to find out who,” she told me.
I tried not to worry about it, and I actually forgot about her fascination with the tunnels as we joined our friends on the Nuttals’ property. The party went smoothly, and I almost thought that Natalie had forgotten about the tunnels as well.
However, about two weeks after graduation, Natalie gave me a call. “I have the night off,” she told me. “Do you want to go back to the tunnels and see if we can find out more?”
“Natalie, just let it go. Besides that, I have to work,” I responded.
“Okay, well, maybe we can go another time.”
I hung up the phone with a sigh of relief, and I went to my night shift at the local Arctic Circle. I couldn’t help but wonder if Natalie really was going to give up on the tunnels or if she had gone without me, but the night was busier than usual, and just like on graduation night, the tunnels quickly left my mind.
The next day was Saturday, and I had the day off of work, so I took the opportunity to sleep later than I usually did. It wasn’t until the afternoon that I remembered that Natalie had wanted to get together the night before. I thought about calling her, and just then our phone rang. My mother called that it was for me, and I was surprised to hear Natalie’s mother on the other end.
“Have you seen Natalie at all today?” she asked me.
“No, I was just going to call her. Is something wrong?”
“She didn’t come home last night. She told us that she was going out with some friends, but she didn’t say who she would be with. Do you have any idea where she could be?”
My heart started to beat irregularly. My stomach felt as if there was a stone in the bottom of it. I tried to remain calm, but I could barely get out, “the tunnels.”
“What did you say? What tunnels?” her mother asked.
“The tunnels underneath the school,” I replied trying to compose myself. “She told me she was going down there to explore.”
“Well, thank you, dear. Now we have a place to look,” and she hung up.
Her mom didn’t seem bothered at all about what I had just told her. Apparently the adults that were new in town hadn’t heard the rumors or knew anything about the disappearances that had happened years ago. My own mom could see that my face was white and my hands were trembling.
“Did you say someone went to explore the tunnels?” she asked me.
I nodded my head. My mother responded with, “Well, I hope that they are okay. It’s really not a very safe place down there.”
I didn’t dare tell her that I had been down there on the night of graduation, and I didn’t want her to know that I had thought about going with Natalie last night. I decided to wait and see if Natalie turned up later in the day. I wasn’t really concerned, even though I kept thinking of the disappearance of the girl that had happened when I was around 6. She was also a recent high school graduate, and she had been curious like Natalie. She also wanted to leave the small town life, and when she did disappear, most of the people who knew her assumed that she had ran away to follow her dreams. Somehow though I never believed the story, and I felt that the tunnels and whoever lived there had something to do with her disappearance and Natalie’s.
The rest of the afternoon passed slowly. About 6:00 in the evening our doorbell rang, and two policemen stood on our front porch. They asked to speak to me. I joined them in our living room with my parents.
“You’re friends with Natalie Sloan, correct?” the taller of the cops asked me.
“Yes,” I replied. By this time my parents were looking at me with suspicion in their eyes.
“Have you seen her in the last 24 hours?” the cop asked again.
“No, I haven’t seen her for a while now. She called and asked me to go out last night, but I had to work,” I told them.
“Did she say anything about her plans?” he asked.
“She wanted to go explore the tunnels,” I said.
“The tunnels? The ones under the high school?” He raised an eyebrow at me, and my parents both looked at me with concern on their faces.
“Yes, the ones under the school. She’s fascinated by them, and she has wanted to explore down there since she first heard about them,” I stated. I didn’t tell them that we had already been down there and that we had found signs of someone living there.
“All right, we’ll be in touch,” he and his partner rose to go.
“Officer, do you think something has happened to Natalie? Should we be concerned?” my father asked.
“Not yet, and if she did go into the tunnels then I am sure that we will find her soon. She probably just got turned around down there and is waiting to be found,” the officer replied.
I gulped, and I wondered if I should mention what we had found on the night of graduation. I waited though because I knew my parents would not like finding out that I hadn’t been where I told them I would be on the night of graduation. I knew that they trusted me, and I knew that I hadn’t done anything wrong, but I hated it when my parents thought I had lied to them, so I kept my mouth shut.
The night went on, and soon the news about Natalie’s disappearance was on the local news channels. The local police had searched the tunnels, and they had supposedly not found anything but empty tunnels. The officer who had interviewed me earlier in the day appeared for a press conference.
“We have no substantial evidence at this time that proves that Natalie Sloan has been harmed in any way. Our teams are still searching for signs of her in town and in the tunnels underneath the school. At this point, we have decided to treat her disappearance as a run-away, and we ask that if anyone has any further information to please come forward,” he told the reporters.
I was shocked that they weren’t going to take her disappearance more seriously. This couldn’t be happening again. My parents sat me down again right after the press conference, and they asked if I knew of any details that would help to find Natalie.
I was trembling, and I didn’t want to lie any more. I finally told them the truth about our trip to the tunnels on the night of graduation, and explained about the room we had found under the school. My father was clearly disappointed in me, and he stated, “This is why I didn’t want you to go to that party. You always do something behind our backs when you go out with your friends,” he grumbled.
“I didn’t do any thing wrong,” I explained. “We were only there for a few minutes, and then we left, Honest!” I proclaimed.
“Well, you better hope that Natalie really did run away,” my father said. “At least then, we won’t have to worry about you sneaking out with her any more. For now, you better tell the police what you know.”
Within thirty minutes the same two officers were in our living room again. I told them what I knew about the tunnels and about the room we had found on the night of graduation.
